Vermilion County recently received some great news on just how strong the 2022 growing season turned out. Vermilion County placed sixth in the state with a total of over 14.4 million bushels of soybeans, a three percent jump from 2021.
For corn, Vermilion County came in tenth in the state, at over 46.4 million bushels, an increase of 12 percent from 2021.
The Vermilion County Farm Bureau’s Tom Fricke says finishing between fourth and sixth in soybeans is pretty normal for the county. But a tenth in corn is extra special, since quite often Vermilion County places just out of the top ten. Fricke says looking back on 2022; sure, farmers had to be creative with fertilizer applications due to extremely high prices, but all worked out. Just the same, however, some are probably asking, ‘what if.’
Audio PlayerAUDIO: There’s always the give and take calculations you have to do. Would you have produced more if you had put a little more nitrogen on? It’s always hard to tell because the weather always has the greatest impact on how those two interact with one another.
Fricke says there’s no doubt one of the biggest reasons for 2022’s success is that over the years seeds have become more and more technologically advanced, and therefore more resistant to trouble, such as some drought problems along the way or fertilizer variations. But there’s certainly more that can be discovered.
Audio PlayerAUDIO: Whatever research is going on that can keep us going. Probably one of the next things might be more temperature resistance to lower temperatures. But who knows; frost is still frost and freeze is still freeze. So there’s only so much traits that can be bred into a plant.
As far as the new planting season goes; yes, we had a mild February; and yes, we had a good dose of moisture late last week. But there’s much of always unpredictable March to go.
Audio PlayerAUDIO: Planting is not a calendar thing. Planting’s a condition thing. So you just have to wait and see what those conditions are.
As Fricke mentioned a while back, some farmers may be holding their breath because a very mild February can be reminiscent of 2012, when a mild February was followed by a growing season of significant drought.
News story here.
